Tadashi Kawamata: A Work in Progress

Surely his real studio is those urban, landscaped parks, museums , historical monuments and even the smaller gallery spaces where he usually works? It is tempting to think so since his installations have stood out for over forty years through their construction in situ and adaptation to the surrounding architecture. However, Tadashi Kawamata, born on the Japanese island of Hokkaido in 1953—a teacher, including at the Beaux-Arts de Paris , and a participant in the 1982 Venice Biennale —welcomes us to the Fort de la Briche business park in Saint-Denis, a town on the edge of Paris where, since 2013, he has occupied two 120-m 2  or 1291.6 ft 2  spaces in large hangars. "One is used for the production of models and the preparation of large works. The other, more recent, functions as a warehouse for pieces about to leave," says his former Beaux-Arts student and permanent assistant, Guillaume Sokoloff, on-site. "Before I moved to Paris in 2006, I didn't have a studio," says the artist. "I traveled a lot, and created my models in my hotel. Since then, I have also set up a small studio in my apartment in the 15 th arrondissement." The Saint-Denis studio is nothing…